Lords and Gods Above
by internet weaver
Summary: So the TARDIS lands in the SGC, complicating an already delicate situation.
1. Chapter 1

I keep getting this in my head. Don't ask me why. So I'm just trying to put it down into paper. The story will go on for about as long as I want it to. It's not like I'm paid for this.

* * *

Okay. Stock of the situation. There was smoke, men, and Guns. Guns with a capital G. Was that an anti-aircraft cannon…underground? Oh, and the men were Guards, also with a capital G, because there's guards who give the illusion of safety, and then there are Guards.

Guards. Guards with Guns. Lots of them. Oh, and body armor. This was a high-security facility, and if the Doctor was right, as he usually was, they were in the middle of America. Well, okay, it was the TARDIS that told the Doctor that. And the TARDIS was always right. Usually. And it was apparently the 1990s. What was a front-line equipped unit doing here, with heavy machine guns doing inside a room no bigger than a small conference hall? The response time to their landing was in mere seconds, not the minutes it normally to gear up that extensively. These were combat uniforms. Loaded weapons, not taken from the armory, but carried throughout the facility. They were ready for visitors, and well-armed for their arrival, too.

Had they… somehow pulled the TARDIS here? Or just set up bait, knowing the TARDIS now fed on rift energy? But the fact that the Guards had come running rather than been sitting and waiting told him that no. And they hadn't done their homework. These guns would certainly make a mess of anyone who stepped outside the TARDIS, but they didn't stand a chance of even scratching the metaphorical paint. So why bother? Hell, this place was a bunker. It had a thick glass observation chamber. Yes, something was expected to happen here.

He turned the periscope around. "Oh."

"Oh?" Rory asked, eyebrows furrowed. "What's 'oh?' As in, 'uh oh?'"

"No, it's 'oh,' as in 'ohhh nothing for us to worry about,'" the Doctor said, placing the handles together and pushing the periscope up. "Well, not unless one of us steps outside," the Doctor said, waltzing over towards the door. Rory stepped right in the way, however.

"We landed somewhere we shouldn't have, didn't we? You always do this, step outside right into somewhere dangerous, and we always end up with a lot of guns pointed at us, and one day it's going to get us killed. For all you know, someone on the other side of that door may have an itchy trigger finger, and I think you've forgotten that not everyone here can regenerate or be so cavalier about their lives."

The Doctor fixed Rory with a stare, as though Rory had grown two heads. "Rory, I've been travelling for centuries. Why do you keep lecturing me about how we travel?"

Rory didn't have an answer at first. Then: "I'm older than you!"

"Fine then. Let me spell it out for you, Rory. IF we engage the cloak, that won't really help, will it? I mean, they know we're here. We can't really talk to them from in here, and they're probably going to point guns at us, whether we step outside the TARDIS now or in five minutes from now. They won't exactly give us enough time to talk before pointing the guns at us. Again."

"Yes, but all we need to do is stay inside," Pond said. "We'll re-fuel and we can go again. I doubt they can come up with anything that will break the hull in that amount of time."

"Yeah, but that's BORING!" Exclaimed the doctor, ducking past Rory and pulling the door towards him.


	2. Chapter 2

SG1Drwho2

The man sitting across from the Doctor was the same as from the viewport, the Doctor noted. Bald, portly, and very hard to read. The stars and decorative material were quite different than that of Brigadier's, but had the same air of unflappability.

"So what you're saying is," he said with a drawl that was NOT reminiscient of Brigadier, "is that you're here…by mistake."

The doctor held up a finger, paused. "Ah, yes. That's quite it. We landed here quite by mistake."

"Through the stargate." He paused, looked down at the clipped together report, then back up at the Doctor. "I find it hard to believe something so large as your ship could fall through such an opening by accident, Doctor."

"Through it?" He asked. "Nono, the TARDIS didn't move. Well, it did change location, but it doesn't move."

The balding man blinked, folded his arms. "What are you implying, Doctor, that your machine is a teleporter?"

"Yes, exactly!" The Doctor exclaimed, jolting to a standing position. The guards were on him in an instant, forcing him back down into his chair. "Well, except no, not really. Actually, not like that at all. But if it makes you feel like you understand it, then yes."

"Well, what is it?"

"Okay, you know how time and distance are… what's the term you like to use… relative? Yes, well, that's rubbish. All of it. Take it and bin it. The TARDIS moves wherever it wants, more or less instantly, teleporting like you said, but also *whenever*."

"Okay, so let's start over. Where are you from?"

"Nowhere you've ever heard heard of. Hell, if I were an alien, you wouldn't even know it!"

"You're human," the bald man said, taking a moment away from the pencil and pad. "At least, all humanoids who resemble humans to this extent within this galaxy are human. This galaxy were seeded by a race, the Goa'uld, with human populations on many worlds quite a few thousands of years ago. Some genetic drift occurred, but it's certainly-"

"Stop right there," the Doctor cut him off, all energy gone from his voice, replaced with a sharp urgency. "Goa'uld? They're here? Now?"

"No, Doctor, not here. Not now. That's our job," said the bald man, patiently. "Now, if you're not going to answer where you're from, but you mention time, then WHEN are you from?"

The Doctor relaxed visibly and eyed the three. These people weren't the stereotypical military: quick to the trigger, quick to return the status to its proper quo. No, they were adaptable, cautious, and curious. The best traits of the human race all bundled into one. He could work with, respect, and maybe even trust that. To some extent, at least. As is, they took his sonic screwdriver. To get a little, you have to give a ltitle.

"From a time that is none of your business poking your noses into, but most recently we're from two thousand and twelve! Your future, or, THE future, to you. Speaking of things that are yours, you have a weird system of time measurement, too. So odd, years. I mean, when you factor in relativity of light when you do something away, when do you say you did something if the effects aren't going to reach that part of the galaxy for many decades? Seriously, come up with a new system of time," he said, sounding peeved by the end of his small rant. "Even by the time the empire exists, sometimes you're STILL using years! So antiquated."

The bald man sighed, put a hand on his forehead. "Thank you for your time, Doctor. I'll send someone in here to ask some more questions, and I hope we can work together."

Clearly, this was a rehearsed response given often. But at least it was a start. The doctor whistled. A seed had been planted, an idea, thought. Now it just needed some time. Sometimes, he felt guilty playing on humans' hope for divining the future through a Time Lord. They weren't infallible, the fate of their empire was proof enough of that, but everyone acted as though they were. Sometimes this could be useful.

"Two thousand and twelve. So, at least we know Earth is still around," Sam said, sitting and poking at the jello with her spoon. It jiggled invitingly, but she just couldn't muster an appetite.

"Well, in some capacity, yes. Even the planets bombed to hell by Ra held life in some capacity afterwards. I doubt Abydonians were the first civilized people to settle on that planet," Jackson said, hands folded, tray empty.

Jack mumbled something through the food in his mouth. Jackson rolled his eyes. "Try again?"

"I said," Jack started with a muffled voice, swallowed his food, and then leaned forward. "I said, at least he seems friendly towards humans. He's got a pretty loyal passenger. She's from 2012, wears the usual fare… you know, I think we'll be okay. As a planet, I mean. Hell, I could retire. Right now. And it'll all be ordained by fate that the planet will survive to at least 2012. Hell, I could take a piss through the stargate and somehow, unknowingly, do something that keeps Earth from blowing up, for at least the next decade," Jack said. "And anything we do from here on out doesn't contribute to knowledge of the stargate going public, or Earth's destruction. I could walk on-air, and start talking about the Stargate, and it will still somehow stay secret."

"That's rather depressing, sir.

"I think it's a bit liberating. I can do anything, and say 'you can't critcize me, for all you know, I'm saving the world by doing anything I want.' I mean, if I were to shoot Kinsey, for example," he said with a wry smile.

Teal'c pulled out a chair from another table and took a seat next to Jack. "That is incorrect, O'Neill," Teal'c quipped calmly. "I believe that the outcome is not ordained, now that time travel has entered the picture, reality may have shifted. As we have now been told, and our actions have changed, the future may also have changed."

"But what about what we did with Hammond? You know, the 60's? He knew what was going to happen."

"Sir, Hammond knew everything that was going to happen, he interfered indirectly with his own timeline, knowing every variable before it happened. We don't know everything that's going to happen. We don't have instructions from our future selves to guide us through the motions. So it's not remotely the same situation," Carter said.

Jack slapped both hands to his forehead. "Okay! Enough! I get it, no shooting Kinsey, but also no more talking about this!" He exclaimed. Everyone in the mess hall stared at him. "It's making my head hurt," He added quietly, pushing his seat back and standing. With a nod to Teal'c, Jackson also stood and joined Jack, walking towards the "guest quarters." It was time for some answers. 


	3. Chapter 3

Hello all. I updated Chapter 2 a bit, as I was unhappy with it towards the end.

"Explain…time?" the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Jackson said, fingers gripping the pen. The Doctor wasn't cleared to wander the base in such low-security areas as Daniel's lab, so the archaeologist simply brought he lab to him.

"Time has to be experienced," the Doctor said. "It'd be like explaining vision to a blind person."

"Oh, we, uh, experience time," Jackson said. "Rather, we move through it."

"Well, bad analogy," the Doctor said. "You percieve that time has passed, but not time itself. You can remember the past, certainly, but that's reliant on your other senses. Okay, actually that was a GOOD analogy," he said, snatching the chalk from Daniel's hands and drawing a stick figure on the board.

"What are you-" Jack said, but Daniel shushed him. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance, slouching further into the chair.

"This man is blind," the Doctor said. He then drew a circular object, with lines heading towards him. "He never sees the baseball that hit him. He can't percieve that it's white, or that it has a smudge of dirt on it, or where it ended up, or who made it," he paused, as if expecting there to be a bigger audience, but there wasn't. "But he can tell that it hit him, he can experience it hitting him, because of his other senses. His sense of touch, for example, and maybe hearing a whistling noise as the ball come toward him. But he's still not able to really percieve the baseball in the same way. He certainly experienced it, though. So yes, you experience time, you understand that time is existant, and you can even contemplate about it, but you don't percieve time. So, no, I can't really make you understand time."

"We are that blind person," Daniel said slowly.

"Uh, yes, I thought that was clear," O'Neill said. "So what you're saying is, you can't teach us time travel. Or anything to do with time."

"Well, I could, but why? You can't percieve it, or the long-term consequences of what you'd be doing. Giving the blind man-" he said, pointing with the chalk at the board- "a cannon for an arm is not one of Humanity's best ideas, and that's exactly what I'd be doing by giving Humanity the ability to manipulate time. Without perception, you'd just blow holes in the field."

"So? You can't feasibly argue that it'd be better if we just left people to die."

"You can't do that," the Doctor said.

"Why not?"

"Were you paying any attention to what I told you about explaining time?" The doctor asked quietly. The room had somehow gone completely silent. You could hear a pin drop. Even the hallway had gone completely silent. It was as though the Doctor had his own personal gravity. "You're now asking me to explain colors when I just told you that you're BLIND. If you can't percieve time, you can't even percieve the rules or why those rules are the way they are. Just accept that you don't have time travel, and I'd be very happy if you never achieve it. I love humanity, but that's just not for the best."

"Rules?" Jack asked, sitting up.

"I think I just told," The Doctor said. "This really is useless. Just give me my TARDIS, and I'll be out of your hair."

"Uh, yeah… Jack?" Daniel said, pressing his fingers together in a steeple.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"At 2200 hours, the Pentagon took direct authority over the TARDIS. It's being moved."

"But it's mine," the Doctor said. "I don't think it'd work that I ask for it back?"

"No, not really," Jack said, crossing his arms. "As it was explained to me, 'An alien with access to a ship that can infiltrate the most secure facility in the United States does little to calm the Joint Chiefs."

"But this is all a mistake," the Doctor said. "Just tell them whose it is, they'll give it back."

"We did. Gave them a complete file with your face on it. They say they have never seen you before, and claim no knowledge of this 'doctor,' and further advise us to stop snooping around classified files we don't have access to," O'Neill said grimly.

"There will be a formal investigation as to how we even got word," Daniel said brightly. "And then we can just introduce them to the Doctor."

"Oh, goodie," The Doctor said. "And when will that be?"

"A couple days?" Daniel said. "After the hearing. Us having access to restricted files is really not a high-priority right now, and we can't just take you to Washington."

"Two days?!" The Doctor exclaimed. "I can't wait two days! There's a lot I could do in that time!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but-"

"C'mon Daniel," Jack said, pulling Daniel away from the irate alien and towards the door. "Look, we'll wait for the results of Janet's samples to tell us whether you're safe to let wander around the base, but until then, you're to remain here."

"And how long will that be?"

Jack sighed. "Not long," and he shut the door.

The Doctor sat. He was *bored.* This was unusual. He so rarely had nothing to do. This place had seen its share of invaders, and was fairly secure, if low-tech. They'd even relieved him of his screwdriver, and making noise inside the room hadn't so much as made the guard open the hatch. "BORED!" he exclaimed.

He had once thought that the "one adventure he could never have" would be exciting, new, interesting, even. No wonder his companions were so fast to jump into the strange and comparatively unusual world he traveled. Anything to escape the monotony.

Rory, in the room opposite, was in many ways also the opposite in this situation. Spending the majority of 2,000 years alone, sitting over a box had taught Rory patience, perspective, and how to pass time when sitting alone. It was funny, really. He was older than the Doctor.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise who cracked first.

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I'LL TALK!" Hollered the Doctor at the top of his lungs at the camera.

The guard manning the observation deck literally tore the earpiece from his head and promptly began massaging his temples. "Told you," said Jackson to O'Neill, who promptly handed over the $20 to the guard.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't see that on the condition you tell me why," Hammond said from behind the two of them.

"Sir!" Jumped O'Neill. "Daniel had the idea that if we secluded them, maybe we could get them to talk. I said he couldn't."

"That's against our usual code of conduct for non-hostile aliens. How long have they been in there?"

Jack glanced at his watch exaggeratedly. "Oh… about five minutes?"

"Nevermind, then. Let's go talk." 


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor leaned towards Rory. "Don't speak, I need to handle this one." Rory nodded mutely.

"We'll play this like so. One question, one answer, back and forth in turn, but only applies to the people in this room, and nothing overwhelmingly complicated or that would take more than a minute to answer, so no 'solve this physics riddle for us, oh won't you please,' do you agree?" Hammond nodded gravely. He was familiar with the games that Aliens seemed to love to play, along with their unusual negotiating tactics. "Good! Me first. Where am I..._** exactly?**_"

"You're in Stargate Command."

"I meant geographically."

"That's your one question," Hammond said.

"If that's how you're going to play it, then you're not going to get much out of me, either," the Doctor said.

Silence reigned in the room. Rory looked like he was about to speak, but the Doctor stomped on Rory's toe. Rory bit his lip in pain, but then stayed quiet.

"How did you get here?" Hammond tried, pressing forward.

"The blue box," the Doctor replied, crossing his arms petulantly. "Didn't you see?" The clock ticked by painfully, and The Doctor eyed it for a second or two. Impasse. Someone, or something, had to give.

"Alright," Hammond said. "You're in NORAD. That's in Colorado, the United States, Earth, 1999." Hammond said after a full and very tense minute had passed.

"Interesting. What is it about this area of the United States? Roswell was in New Mexico, Van Statten was in Utah... and now you're here in Colorado."

"Van Statten? The mogul?" Carter asked, leaning forward.

"Sorry, is that your question?" The doctor uncrossed his arms and leaned into the light.

Again, a pause. "Was that yours?" O'Neill asked wryly.

"No."

"Then that wasn't ours, either. We're cooperating, let's move forward, okay? Our question is, why are you here?"

"Uhm... well, this isn't my first visit to Earth. I live on Earth. But as to why I'm here at what you call Stargate Command, Colorado, in the United States? Well, that's actually an accident," the Doctor said. "We've had a friend, taken from us. Well, it would be more fair to say that I had a friend, and that Rory had a wife." Rory looked like he was about to speak, but the Doctor steamrolled through whatever he was about to say. "But right now? We're looking for her. Lost the trail around the Crawfish Nebula... but I found a wormhole, right where we lost the trail, too. I thought it was just too convenient to be unassociated, so I put the ship into it, and...well, now here we are. Looks like we made a bit of a mess when we landed. Sorry."

"You shouldn't have landed it all. You're lucky you did, I mean," Sam's interest was completely focused on the Doctor- it was an intense gaze, and one that made him squirm. "I am just saying, it should have torn you apart on a molecular level."

"Sam's our resident expert on wormholes," Daniel added.

The Doctor regarded Sam with an eye. "Experts" on the edge of theoretical physics always made him nervous. They always had something to prove, and generally would stop at nothing to do so. "Most wormholes open and close in space, with no real start or end points of interest or anything to mark where they are. I wasn't expecting someone to put the exit on the ground, on a planet's surface, much less to put a cap over its exit. That sort of defeats the purpose. By the way, this place is just _awesome _for rift energy, by the way. Really," he said, eying random segments of the room. "You've had some cowboys in here. Whole place is littered with time particles, tachyon radiation, phase waves... even a few parallel universe gates, yet none of them are active right now. Whatever you've been doing here, you're making Torchwood look lazy in its meddling with the fabric of the Universe."

"I wouldn't say _meddling_," doctor Jackson said. "Technically, we're doing what we have to, in order to _survive_. And yes, we're learning along the way."

"Yes yes, I've heard all this before," the Doctor said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Torchwood. Does the word Torchwood ring any bells? No? Well, let me tell you, they're exactly like you- guns and all, research into alien technology, all for the preservation of mankind from alien threats. Only the artifacts they found destroyed them, and there never was any threat."

"Only," Jack interrupted loudly "this time there IS a threat. I'm tired of being told that we don't know what we're doing."

"And how many accidents have you had here as a result of alien technology you thought you fully understood, only to find out you barely understood it? Just because you're tired of hearing it doesn't make it untrue,"

"We wouldn't be researching these Alien technologies if we weren't in real danger."

"Oh? A danger other than yourselves gathering all this alien technology you don't fully understand?"

"Yes. We made first contact with alien races-"

"Technically, not _first_ contact, if you're running by your calendar," the Doctor said quickly.

"First Modern Contact," O'Neill growled, making clear that he did not like being interrupted. "With an alien species. They're decidedly hostile. This planet has been at _war_, Doctor."

"War?" the Doctor asked. "Really? I thought I'd have noticed a full scale war. Like the Cyberman invasion? Or the Dalek Civil war on the streets in Britain? Maybe?"

Everyone in the room glanced at each other with uncertainty. "Oh...look at you," The Doctor said suddenly cheerfully, as though he were enamored with everyone in the room. "So..._American_. Big guns, gung-ho military, involved in what you think is a war on an interplanetary level, and yet totally unaware of what's going on outside your own national borders. Only thing we're missing is a Big Mac. So tell me, who are you fighting this big bad war against that for whatever reason can't find a way to step on you like an insect without requiring some form of intergalactic intervention?"

"A race of parasitical beings. We began hostilities after they destroyed an extraterrestrial human village and began enslaving an entire population," Daniel said.

The Doctor paused. "Okay, maybe that's enough to get them angry, but most alien civilizations are perfectly rational, they have to be in order to work together and progress technologically far enough to reach the stars. Surely there's time to defuse the situation. I've acted as a mediator before. You need to understand that this planet is _protected_ under the Shadow Proclamation, but it won't be if you keep provoking them. Surely what you did can be undone."

"We...sort of kicked off hostilities when we blew up their God with a thermonuclear device, along with his ship. And that was years ago. We haven't really looked back," O'Neill said, then shooting a glance at Teal'c "and haven't considered slowing down, either."

The Doctor paused. "Oh." Then he paused again. Everyone leaned forward: "Oh..." the Doctor said again. "I see... that... actually might very well kick off a war. And yes, that would remove the protections afforded to this planet under the Shadow Proclamation..."

"That's the second time you have mentioned the Shadow Proclamation, Doctor. What is it?" General Hammond asked.

"Well, sort of irrelevant now, that's what it is. When you went out and started attacking other planets, you made it null and void. Think of the protections afforded the wilderness- you can't just go burning the forest down because you want to put a farm there. That's the protection that the Shadow Proclamation affords you. It keeps bulldozers at bay from just taking the planet, razing it, and using it for their own purposes."

"We're not exactly wilderness," Carter said. "We've got space flight."

"Compared to the rest of the universe? Ha!" The Doctor laughed. "So you've discovered the equivalent of spears in today's day and age. Imagine if the indigenous peoples of the forest started attacking your cities from the forest. What do you think would happen to the forest? Do you think the denizens would particularly care about what any regulatory body would say if those native people came rampaging through the downtown district?" There was a pause in the room. "I've been busy you know. Moreso these past few years than EVER before. And when I mention the Shadow Proclamation and how it pertains to this planet, they don't listen anymore. And now I know why."

"Busy?" O'Neill asked. "Who are you, and what do you do?"

"I'm The Doctor, I protect this Earth and its people." Then The Doctor sat back in his chair, and pressed his fingertips together. "And I'm very tired, you know. All this running around. I'm over a thousand years old! Not that that's old, mind you, just... look, this war isn't that serious, it can't be, I'd have noticed, no matter how busy you've made me. Things are escalating _well_ beyond what you're aware. The whole world is fighting aliens now, all over the place, and not just the ones you kicked the war off with. Earth isn't ready to fend for itself against all these races. If we broker a peace-"

"Not possible."

"But you don't understand, if you initiated it, then it's up to you to try and reinstate peace under the Shadow Proclamation. Even if you fail, you still are displaying an effort that these other races can't ignore. They can't continue to invade this planet on the basis of your continued aggression, even if your war continues."

"They won't go for a peace settlement, Doctor. Not now. We have sewn insurrection within their slave ranks, we have freed millions, perhaps billions from the yoke of their false godhood," Teal'c spoke firmly. "I will not allow for a peace to settle, not while any of these false gods stand. The Goa'uld will not look past our efforts to unseat them."

"Have you even tried? It's not for yourselves, it's for this planet. All we need to do is meet, a diplomatic envoy from the aggressors will cease the invasions from the other beings in this galaxy. Even if it fails, the planet would be safe."

"We have not tried," Hammond said. "We are protected, however, under a new treaty brokered with another Alien race, which is offering this planet their protection from this enemy race. When we are off-world, we are afforded no such protection."

"Yes, this new protector is protecting you from the Goa'uld you're warring with, but not from any other. Interesting. That does explain why I haven't noticed this war. It's all happening offworld."

"You propose an alternative?"

"Well, if you give this a go, it doesn't even have to be an honest attempt, you will be protected from the other Alien threats facing this planet once again. Granted, your conflict may continue, and your present treaty should keep Earth safe, but it will make my life a lot easier, and make this planet safer. I suppose the aliens you're warring with knew what was happening, and that's why they've agreed to a peace with you in the meantime. They don't have to move against you, they are going to let other aliens move in and flatten the planet."

Hammond sat back. He had that look on his face- the look that O'Neill hated. The look that Hammond reserved for a mission that O'Neill was going to hate. The look that said 'I'm-going-to-tell-you-to-do-something-you-don't-want-to.' "General," O'Neill said. "Tell me we're not going to go meet the snakes."

"Oh we're going to meet the Snakes, Colonel. And I do mean _we_, Doctor, and you as well, Rory."

"Hold on now, I've stayed good and quiet! What about my wife!?" Rory exclaimed.

"We'll see about finding your wife, Rory. The Universe tends to be smaller than you think. Odds are she went into that wormhole. She may not have emerged on this side. We will send an expedition to the planet we just visited and do our best to find her. After we return, if this meeting goes as it should, then we will continue the search. Does that sound fair?"

"No, how about you let us go?" Rory asked.

"...or I could just have you locked away for the rest of your life, in which case you get nothing."

"What's the name of this Planet we're visiting?" The Doctor asked, before Rory could continue.

"Oh, a neutral planet we call P3X-1194."

"No, really, what's it called?"

Jack looked around the room "Well, I like to call it "The Boring Planet."


	5. Chapter 5

I should state that this is AU, this isn't when Amy got kidnapped by The Silence.

Chapter 5

Everyone sat in a circle around the stone altar. The seats were made of trees that had been cut down and formed into a high-backed throne. The planet they had chosen to meet on was rather primitive- it was forested, unpopulated by humans, and a perfect neutral ground.

The invitation had been sent through the stargate. The Doctor was busy trying not to pull his hair out in frustration as he went into the intricacies and importance of intergalactic hospitality and diplomatic standards to Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and General Hammond. Or, he would be, if he weren't wearing a Fez, which he had insistently worn through the gate. "It commands authority and denotes neutrality," he had stated. General Hammond had been oddly relaxed on this regard.

Teal'c eyed Rory. Rory, despite being seated with Teal'c on the opposite side of the table and not involved in discussion, did not appear bored in the slightest. "Rory," Teal'c addressed the man. Rory jerked his head up.

"Yes?"

"You display great patience and discipline," Teal'c slowly said. "For someone whose wife has been kidnapped." He left the implication in the air, but raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"I've spent more than a thousand years away from my wife," Rory said. "I do not wish to sound flippant, but I realize that pressing things now will not reunite me with her any sooner than if I fly the TARDIS without The Doctor, who, by the way, seems to not be as interested in retrieving my wife as he is in brokering this deal."

"That's something I'm wondering," Sam said.

"What?" Rory asked.

"Not what, Who."

"Who what?" Rory asked again.

"Him," Sam said, exasperated.

"Him who?"

"Not this again, stop being difficult. Doctor who?"

"Who? The Doctor?"

"Yes, who is The Doctor? For that matter, who are you?"

"You just answered your own question. The Doctor is who he is. I'm Rory, and the short version is that I've lived almost two thousand years in an unaging body watching over a box my wife was trapped in stasis inside, then got my consciousness restored to a mortal body, and quite frankly I can't explain any of it in much greater detail than that, even if I tried."

"I wish to know The Doctor's identity, as well as why General Hammond is so trusting of him," Teal'c rumbled loudly enough for the rest of the table to overhear. Teal'c spoke few words, but when he did, everyone stopped to listen.

O'Neill chipped in a slight verbal agreement. "General?"

Hammond sighed, then rested his palms on the table. "I was stationed in Britain briefly to advise plans to oppose the Soviets shortly after the 1960s. I was posted to a United Nations joint command force. I served under a man by the name of Lethbridge-Stewart, and I don't think he spent a day caring about the perceived Soviet menace as much as he did about Aliens." He paused, looking around the table. "I never saw any of them myself, but Lethbridge-Stewart did speak very highly of The Doctor. If this _is_ a trap, it has been decades in the making. And the Doctor _is_ correct. While we have not been aware of it, the whole planet has seen a major spike in extraterrestrial interference since the Stargate program came into being. Exposing the world to Extraterrestrials may end up not falling onto the shoulders of the Stargate program, or even to the United States, if this keeps up. Governments worldwide have been working very hard to keep aliens under wraps."

"And the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner I can get my ship back, correct?" The Doctor asked. "Oh, and I'll be less busy. Really, very appreciative you're willing to give peace a go. Normally when Americans have guns and there's a war on, it's like talking to a clone group of Sontarans. Especially when it's the humans that started the war."

"We didn't pick this war, Doctor. They captured Doctor Jackson and General O'Neill here. They did not know where we came from. Years later, they came to our planet and took a human as a host and killed several humans at this base. We were not venturing off world at this time. We did not ACTUALLY initiate hostilities."

"But this _was_ after you decided to go blow up their whole race's King. Or God," Rory stated.

"King," Teal'c interjected. "Gods don't die."

"He was their King... the kings' King. We did sort of blow him up, but they didn't know we did it until after they came to Earth and started killing people. We also overthrew them off of the planet thousands of years ago." Daniel Jackson said. "I mean, when we put it that way, we do sound rather violent."

"A bit," The Doctor said hesitantly.

"Well, it's not like we started all the killing," Jack said sardonically. The man was too casual about death for The Doctor's tastes. The way he held the gun, the way his head moved for new targets... this man was a killer. He had no compunctions about doing it. But mostly because he was aware of the danger he was in, he and his friends. A warrior, then, not a murderer.

"That doesn't justify anything, you know. Arguments can't really be best settled with 'well he started it.'"

"Well, no, but around the time they threatened mass slavery, we had no choice but to fight back," Sam pointed out, voice strained a bit with frustration.

"No," the Doctor said. "I suppose not. Not when faced with superior technology, superior firepower, superior manpower, yet you went and picked the fight anyways. Humans."

"It has been four hours, Doc."

"I know," The Doctor said, arms crossed. "I've never waited for anyone this long in my life, you know. Ever."

"You travel with a girl you call 'the girl who waited.' I waited 2,000 years. Deal with it," Rory countered, trying to find a comfortable way to seat himself. It was almost as though they were uncomfortable by design. Short of using spikes, he doubted he could engineer a less comfortable way of sitting.

Finally, the radio crackled. "O'Neill? We've got an incoming wormhole."

"Tell your squad to find cover, and lead our guests here. Hopefully this goes over well."


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone! Working on this and the next chapter in my spare time. Next chapter is half-written already.

Edit: WHOOPS. I should mention, I only re-wrote Ch. 6, forgot to delete the old one. Ch. 8 was MEANT to be published, but isn't.

The entire ambassadorial entourage was in its usual garish display of gold metal and flesh. Jack inwardly wondered if he appeared this out of touch with fashion to other people when he went to the mall. Jack felt as aged to mall rats as the Goa'uld.

"Why have you called this peace summit?" The Ambassador asked, straight to the point, with a voice that echoed in a low resonance, giving a haunting appearance. Rory jumped at the voice, but the Doctor was not phased. "I am Her'shir. Speak!"

"Well, there's a lot to talk about," He exclaimed, gesturing grandly around the table. "You've been attacking Earth." He smiled a bit at the Earthlings gathered around the table. "Or at least, have tried to." Jack nodded slowly. "That's against your treaty, though, and I'm here to set the record straight on that. You see-"

Most of the rest of the entourage took their chairs. Her'Shir, however, preferred leaning over the table with both palms resting against it in an attempt to intimidate the rest of the table. "The Tau'ri violated the terms of our treaty when they launched attacks and killed Ra. They would cut us from our hosts, and see our empire crumble if they had the means!" Her'Shir stated angrily.

"Guilty," Jack announced happily, looking entirely too pleased with himself, patting his gun as a not-so-subtle reminder to the Goa'uld. The finer points of diplomacy clearly eluded him. Or he didn't care to follow them. Neither possibility would have surprised the Doctor. Hammond shot him a look, and Jack pursed his lips a bit. Hammond knew how Jack wanted to conduct negotiations with the Goa'uld- by the end of a gun's barrel.

"What of your other treaty? Earth is still a developing world, a protected world. That means non-interference, under the rules of the Shadow Proclamation." Hammond said, hoping he'd remembered the Doctor's notes.

Her'Shir stiffened, standing ramrod straight. "What?" Hammond repeated himself, and put more emphasis on the word _protected_. "Who told you about the Shadow Proclamation?"

"No one."

"Impossible. It must have been your meddlesome allies, up to their usual tricks." The Ambassador whispered something to his seated guard. The entire table tensed. Teal'c's hands went under the desk, and slowly pulled the staff from underneath, placing it against the table with a loud 'clank.' He eyed the Jaffa who the Ambassador had just spoken to, then slowly raised an eyebrow. There was a moment of pure, undisguised fear in the Jaffa's eyes before he looked away to complete his given task. The Jaffa seated next, however, had his hand slowly clench the staff weapon tighter, fury in his eyes.

"We are simply calling them here," the Ambassador said, cocking his head.

"Who?" the Doctor asked, but it seemed everyone else knew, so nobody bothered to answer him.

"Now? As in, right now? You can do that?" Daniel Jackson asked, inquisitively.

"Yeah, I can think of a few times where that would have been helpful," Jack said wryly.

"Indeed," added Teal'c. To the casual observer, he looked as he always did, but Jack detected some underlying annoyance.

"Trick or no," replied the Doctor, not letting comments about their mysterious allies derail the topic. "The terms of the Shadow Proclamation are _quite_ clear. You are having enough trouble defeating everyone gathered at this small table. Imagine what will happen if you prevail. You won't be facing earth's allies anymore, you'll be facing _me_. And if you manage to get through, what do you think the **Shadow Proclamation will do to you?**"

The Goa'uld re-appraised the Doctor. His speech didn't change, but the Goa'uld no longer seemed quite so dismissive in his body language. He turned to fully face him.

The Doctor continued. "The Goa'uld are no stranger to intergalactic war. You've dealt with Cybermen intrusions infiltrating your hosts and attempting to hijack your ships, you've seen the mass genocide the Daleks inflict. Your weapons are inefficient, but they can certainly can blast a hole in a Cyberman, and can even overwhelm a Dalek's shields and armor with enough hits. Yet mostly, you've elected to run. You have abandoned entire worlds to burn when you could have saved so many. Have you ever wondered why it is that Earth has _never_ fallen to the Daleks? The Daleks and Cybermen don't care about the Shadow Proclamation. Ask yourself: Why not Earth?"

The Ambassador was silent.

"Me."

The Goa'uld's eyes were wild, and was about to reply, but the clouds parted above with a mighty thunderclap as an Asgard ship entered the inner atmosphere. The table shook, and one of the Jaffa bowed to the ship.

"Uh, Doctor?" Rory asked.

"Yes?"

"I think that's... isn't that the ship?"

"Yes, Rory, yes it is."

"What does this mean?"

"It means very bad things are about to happen."

"We simply called the Asgard here," the Ambassador said, cocking his head at the Doctor's behavior. "They're your allies, correct? The ones who told you about the Shadow Proclamation?"

"We need to get back to the gate, now!" He turned on his heel and began sprinting for the gate.

"Doctor!" Sam shouted after him.

"Talk later, leave now," the Doctor said hurriedly making his way to the DHD and holding his screwdriver towards it. The panels began to light, but just as the Gate began spinning, all of the participants were being beamed aboard. "Ah, crap." The Doctor managed to utter before being molecularly rearranged for transit.


End file.
